No Nickie, I never bothered. If I can't get any artifacts in the basement I felt there was no need to waste any more time in this game. There is no guarantee that getting the artifacts in the castle will get the ones in the basement. Plus you said the castle ones were puzzle based. And without a walkthrough, doing this is just impossible for me.

Also I do not understand why there is such a low cap on experience. I have already maxxed it out and that is without a single artifact. At least before I was getting stronger with all the respawning. Now I am not.

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Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while